


A New Way of Doing Things

by Lefaym



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bonding, F/M, Gen, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, surrogate mother-daughter relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2016-10-31
Packaged: 2018-08-20 04:19:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8235880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: Rey has been spending all her free time working. Leia offers a friendly ear.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salvadore](https://archiveofourown.org/users/salvadore/gifts).



> Happy Halloween, salvadore! I hope you receive many sweet things for the end of October!
> 
> And my thanks to [temporarily redacted] for betaing this story.

Leia’s caf machine was finally working again. As was her second data-pad, the Rebellion-era holo-projector someone had acquired for the rec room, and an old speeder that had been rotting on Toreen XI for at least a decade when the Resistance made it their base of operations. 

As of this moment, the party responsible was sitting on a bench just outside the mess hall, intently focused on re-wiring some burnt-out power cells. Rey didn’t even seem to notice Leia standing near her until Leia cleared her throat.

“Oh!” Rey looked up from her work. “General -- I mean, Leia -- I didn’t see you.”

Leia smiled. “Looks like you’re working hard.”

“I like to be useful,” said Rey.

“Not that I don’t appreciate it,” said Leia, “but most of our number don’t volunteer for extra work during their rec hours. Especially not three times in a row.” The rosters weren’t exactly generous with downtime in the first place.

“I don’t mind,” said Rey, looking down at the cylinders in her hands. “I’m used to working.”

“I would’ve thought you were working hard enough with Luke already.” Leia had seen them training together. She’d seen Rey learning to push her body past all of its natural limits. Luke had told her, too, how well Rey was doing, with quiet pride in his voice.

“I want to earn my keep.”

Leia knew a little about how Rey had lived before she’d come to them; she knew that the girl had been forced to work long hours for very little in return. But something -- an instinct, perhaps her own untrained sense of the Force -- told Leia that that wasn’t the issue here. She sat on the bench beside Rey.

“What’s troubling you, Rey?”

“Nothing,” said Rey, far too quickly. “Nothing’s troubling me.”

Leia let her amusement show, just a little. “You’re going to have to do better than that, I’m afraid.”

“I don’t want to bother you.”

“You won’t bother me,” said Leia. “You don’t have to tell me, of course. But if you needed someone to listen…”

Gently, Leia took the power cells from Rey’s hands and set them aside. Rey looked at her strangely for a moment, and Leia wondered if Rey had ever been able to share her troubles with someone else before.

“I…” Rey drew a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. “You really don't mind?”

“I really don't.”

Rey bit down on her lower lip. “It’s Finn.”

“Ah,” said Leia, with a smile. She might have guessed. “What is it about Finn?” 

Leia had seen the two of them together, sharing shy glances, and holding hands beneath the table in the mess hall.

“Well… some nights both of us are free. And I… I don’t think Finn would mind if I wanted to spend them with him.”

Rey blushed, but Leia pretended not to notice.

“Do you want to spend the night with him?”

“Yes,” said Rey. The red in her face deepened, but she held Leia’s gaze.

“Well then, what’s the problem?”

Rey looked away. “It’s my training. I don’t think Jedi are supposed to…”

“Ah.”

“I didn’t want to ask Luke,” said Rey. “It seemed a little… well…”

“I understand,” Leia assured her.

“Do you know… do you think it would hurt my training, if Finn and I…”

Leia considered Rey for a moment. “I think Luke has told you that I could have trained to be a Jedi, if I’d wanted to.”

Rey nodded.

“I thought about training with Luke. I learned a little. But I was running for the Senate, and the New Republic needed me. I had Han, and then Ben too.” The thought of both of them twisted painfully in her chest, but Leia pushed it down, and forced herself to focus on Rey. “Would you think terribly of me if I told you that even now, I don’t regret the choices I made?”

Rey shook her head. “No.”

Rey meant it too, Leia could tell. In spite of everything, she didn’t hold Leia’s choices against her. 

“What I do regret,” Leia continued, “is that we made it a choice at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Back then, Luke and I both thought that we had to stick to the old ways. The Jedi path, or family, my work, everything else. Now though… I wonder what would’ve happened if we’d tried to find a new way instead.”

Rey contemplated Leia’s words. “Is that what I’m supposed to do? To find a new way?”

Leia leaned forward and cupped Rey’s cheek with one hand. “There’s no _supposed to_ here. Don’t think about it like that. Just look inside yourself, find that peaceful place that my brother has been teaching you about, and do what feels right.”

Rey nodded slowly as she considered Leia’s words. “Okay,” she said.

Leia let her hand fall to her lap. 

“Now,” said Leia, “much as I’d love to have those old power cells fixed this evening, I’m going to have to insist that you take advantage of your rec time for once. I hear that some of the pilots will be showing some holovids tonight on that projector you fixed. Perhaps your young man would be interested in watching one with you?”

Rey smiled. “I think he’d like that.” 

They both stood, and Leia sensed a moment of hesitation from Rey before Leia found herself pulled into a hug. Leia returned it, holding the girl close.

“Thank you,” said Rey.

“Oh, and Rey?” said Leia, as they pulled away from each other.

“Yes?”

“Sometime soon, make sure you speak to one of the med-droids about a contraceptive device.”

Rey smiled shyly. “I already did that. I mean, I didn’t know if… but I wanted to be prepared, just in case.”

Leia returned her smile. “Rey, you’re going to do just fine.”

Leia watched as Rey walked away. She leaned down to pick up the half-repaired power cells, knowing that Rey wouldn’t need to return to the task. She could still feel the warm imprint of Rey’s arms around her shoulders.

Luke’s quarters weren’t far from here, and Leia thought it might be time to check in on him. She couldn’t betray Rey’s confidence, of course, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask him to let her out of training early every now and then. Not too often, they couldn’t afford that -- but Rey had fixed the caf machine, after all, and she deserved a little extra time to spend with her young man.


End file.
